Dad Must Pay Half of Daughter's Cornell Law School Expenses: NJ Court

A New Jersey father has been ordered to pay half the cost of his daughter's law school education at Cornell Law School, with his portion to be about $112,500, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled.

James Livingston must pay half the law school tab thanks to the terms in his divorce settlement agreement, according to the attached decision by the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division.

Livingston, a history professor at Rutgers University, must give his daughter the $112,500 so she can pay the $225,000 tab to attend Cornell Law School. When Livingston and his ex wife divorced in 2009, they agreed to split the cost if their daughter attended law school and maintained at least a 'C' average, the suit said.

After the divorce, Livingston had a falling out with his daughter and they stopped talking, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Even so, Livingston offered to put up $7,500 per year if she attended Rutgers Law School and lived at home. His daughter opted to go to Cornell instead.

The New Jersey appeals court judges sided with the daughter, saying that the divorce agreement did not explicitly give the father a say about which school she could choose.

New Jersey children suing their parents for for college tuition has been national news of late. New Jersey honor student Rachel Canning sued her parents last week for college expenses. There is no contract or divorce settlement in play in the Canning case.